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Best Buy Disadvantages
Write the first paragraph of your page here. Section heading Write the first section of your page here. Remember to include links to other pages on the wiki. The list Warranty controversy In 2000, two Florida consumers brought a lawsuit against Best Buy, alleging that the company engaged in fraudulent business practices related to the sale of extended warranties (or, more accurately, service plans). The suit claimed that Best Buy employees had misrepresented the manufacturer's warranty in order to sell the chain's own Product Service/Replacement Plan and that Best Buy had "entered into a corporate-wide scheme to institute high-pressure sales techniques involving the extended warranties" and that the retailer used "artificial barriers to discourage consumers who purchased the 'complete extended warranties' from making legitimate claims." Best Buy ultimately settled for $200,000, but admitted no wrongdoing. In 2009, a class action lawsuit was launched against Best Buy. The lawsuit addressed the same issue. Several consumers were outraged by the sales tactics used by Best Buy employees to sell their Performance Service Plans. They were misled into thinking that the "plan" covered all damages and that they would receive a new product if they were to bring the product back to the store within the service period. Sales associates failed to disclose the details of the service plan. The results of the lawsuit are still pending. Pricing controversies In the second quarter of 2007, Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal ordered an investigation into Best Buy's use of an in-store website alleged to have misled customers on item sales prices. In December 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported on the same issue in which some customers claimed they thought they were surfing the internet version of bestbuy.com at an in-store kiosk only to learn that the site reflected in-store prices only. In response, Best Buy spokesperson Sue Busch indicated the in-store kiosks were not intended for price-match purposes and rather a means to navigate in-store availability. Since the initial investigation, a banner was placed on the in-store site to make its customers more aware of the difference. Similar pricing errors occurred in July 2009, when the Palm Pre was mistakenly sold for $99.99 (versus the retail of $199.99), and Best Buy honored some of the sales, and in August 2009, when the site mistakenly listed a Samsung LN52A650 52" LCD HDTV on sale for $9.99, down from its retail price of $1699.99. The store chose not to honor the $9.99 HDTV error, instead refunding the sold units. According to the site's Condition of Use Policy, Best Buy reserves the right to cancel the orders of errors on its site. The listing for the TV was later removed entirely. Analog televisions In April 2008, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined Best Buy $280,000 for not alerting customers that the analog televisions they sold would not receive over-the-air stations after the digital transition on June 12, 2009. Best Buy is challenging this ruling by the FCC saying it was and is in compliance with current FCC regulations pertaining to the digital transition. Environmental issues Best Buy was one of several large companies named by Greenpeace in 2007 for purchasing raw materials or manufactured products derived thereof from logging companies that in the opinion of Greenpeace contribute to unethical deforestation of taiga in Canada. Since that time, however, Best Buy launched what it calls Greener Together to increase the energy efficiency of its products as well as reduce consumer waste through more recyclable packaging and proper disposal of certain electronic components.